New NEDA chief to meet banana exporters Thursday

National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) acting director general Arsenio Balisacan said shortly after President Benigno Aquino III swore him into office Wednesday that he will meet banana producers Thursday to help them map out a diversification strategy.   Balisacan noted that while only a small segment of the country’s agriculture exports are bananas, “it’s very important in the south because it is a major export (there).”   He explained that the diversification strategy would be needed especially if the tiff with China over parts of the West Philippine Sea escalates.   In recent weeks, China had stopped shipments of bananas from going past its customs controls for alleged failure to meet food safety standards.   Then lately, some batches of banana shipments were allowed entry into China after resolution of import control concerns.   “If it worsens…we really need to diversify. That (diversification) has been our problem for a long time. Noong una, very dependent tayo on the US. We need to sit down with the industry, we're sitting down, I'm meeting with the banana producers tomorrow,” Balisacan said. The new NEDA chief graduated magna cum laude from the Mariano Marcos State University in 1979 where he earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Agriculture.   He obtained his masters degree in Agricultural Economics at the University of the Philippines in Los Baños, Laguna, in 1982. In 1985, he earned his doctorate in Economics at the University of Hawaii. — ELR, GMA News